Kabul, Jan 13(ANI): Poppy farmers in Afghanistan earned over 1.4 billion dollars, which is equivalent to nine percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product, after the value of the crop increased by 133 percent in 2011, an official survey has found.
Opium prices had begun to rise from 2010 onwards after the poppy crop was hit by fungal disease, confirming the forecast of the 2010 Afghan Opium Survey.
The United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime said Afghanistan contributes 90 percent to the world's opium production, The BBC reports.
Opium production in Afghanistan helps fund the Taliban insurgency, and has given rise to corruption in the country, it added.
Three Afghan provinces- Kapisa, Baghlan and Faryab, which had earlier been declared "poppy-free" have started poppy cultivation once again.
Opium is derived from the sap produced by poppy seed heads after flowering.
It can be refined into morphine, which can be further processed to make heroin for the purpose of illegal drug trade. (ANI)
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